Friday, November 6, 2015

Field Site Visit for Midstream Reach of Bago River and Meeting with YTU

This is Ralph Allen Acierto, project researcher of Kawasaki group from River and Environmental Engineering Laboratory. The site visit to Bago River Basin in Myanmar was done from 27-31 October 2015. The objective of the site visit was to establish the impact of tidal fluctuations and get some observations in Bago River basin primarily near the confluence of Bago River and Yangon River. The map below shows the areas visited during the field site visit. For this post, it details the activities done for sites 5-7 that are located in the midstream area of Bago River.

Figure 1. Annotated Bago River Field Site Visit locations from MotionX Offline map. (1)Excel River View Hotel; (2)Star City Site; (3) Thilawa Site; (4)Yangon Site; (5) Midstream bridge crossing in Bago River; (6) Bago City site observation; and (7) Tawa sluicegate

29 October 2015

In the afternoon, the team was divided into two groups, one for installing camera in Yangon River site and other group went to visit midstream area of Bago River near Bago City. For the Bago River group, we went to three sites as indicated by the numbers 5-7 in Figure 1. On the way to Tawa sluicegate, we encountered a bridge crossing along the Bago River and decided to check the tide level marks on the bridge and nearby area. In addition, we stopped by a nearby area where people were residing to interview them regarding the typical tide fluctuation on the area. According to the locals, an estimated 2-3meter fluctuations is usually seen on this area. This was confirmed by checking the tide marks on the river bank as indicated by the wet (darker) water mark on the river bank soil.

Figure 2. (5) Bridge crossing at midstream of Bago River. Top left and right picture shows the bridge at the site with low tide condition. Left bottom picture shows downstream of the bridge crossing and extent of high tide fluctuation indicated by wet river bank


Then, we proceeded to Bago City where a site observation under Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) as shown in Figure 3. In the picture, we can see the downstream of Bago River and showing the observation instruments for automatic weather station (AWS) and water level gauge as part of the current telemetry system for Bago River. We went to the DMH site observation office and talked to the officers-in-charge to ask about the tide levels. They have informed us that during full moon tide fluctuation can reach up to 0.60 to 0.70 meters. This information establishes that the tide fluctuations affect even up to the midstream reach of Bago River Basin.

Figure 3. (6) Bago City observation site showing the AWS instruments(left top picture) and water level gauge (bottom right picture)


After a short break and discussion at DMH observation office, we proceeded to Tawa sluicegate. Figures 4 to 7 show the different views of the upstream and downstream of Tawa sluicegate. At the time we visited, the sluicegate was closed as shown in the pictures. The downstream side of the sluicegate has little to no water flowing.

Figure 4. (7) Tawa sluice gate showing downstream closed gate condition

Figure 5. Figure 10. (7) Tawa sluice gate structures

 The upstream side of the sluicegate shows a reservoir with a water level at 15.4 meter indicating a 7.4 meter depth given an 8 meter river bed level (based from the downstream river bed level shown in Figure 4).

Figure 6. (7) Tawa sluicegate showing upstream closed gate condition

Figure 7. Upstream area of the Tawa sluicegate



31 October 2015

In addition to the field site visit, we visited YTU campus for a meeting and turnover of two Mobotix camera used in the field observations as shown in Figure 8. During the meeting, three presentations were delivered. Two presentations from University of Tokyo side and one presentation from YTU side. The presentations were to update each other on the current progress of respective researches related to the project. Additional logistical concerns related to an upcoming workshop at YTU for next month were also discussed. After the meeting, we directly proceeded to the international airport and waited for our flight back to Tokyo in the evening.


Figure 8. Left picture shows the turnover of two Mobotix camera used for observations to YTU and right picture shows presentation to YTU counterparts




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